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MEMOIR 



HONORABLE ABBOTT LAWRENCE, 



PREPARED FOR THE 



lational |]orfrait iallm), 



WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT, ESQ. 



EXTRACTED FROM THE WORK BV PERMISSION OF THE PTOLISHERS. 



PRINTED FOR PRIVATE DISTRIBUTION. 

1856. 









: 









MEMOIR. 



TN the following pages, we shall endeavor to 

present a sketch of the life and character of 

Abbott Lawrence, now that the grave has closed 

over him, and while his virtues are yet fresh in the 

memory of his countrymen. 

The name of Lawrence is one of the earliest to be 
found among the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts. 
John Lawrence, the first emigrant of the name, was 
established in Watertown as early as 1635, and may 
have come over at the same time with Governor Win- 
throp. He afterwards removed, with his wife, to 



MEMOIR OF 



Groton, where lie lived to a good old age ; leaving, at 
his death, a numerous family of sons and daughters. 
From one of the former was descended the subject 
of the present memoir. His father, Samuel Lawrence, 
was a soldier of the Revolution. On the breaking out 
of the war with the mother-country, he was among 
the first to bear arms ; and was one of the little band 
of heroes who accompanied Colonel Prescott, and fought 
by his side at the battle of Bunker's Hill. His regi- 
ment was accordingly in the hottest of the action; 
being stationed at the redoubt, the principal point of 
attack. It had nearly proved a fatal day to the young 
soldier, who, besides a wound in the arm, had his hat 
pierced by a musket-ball, which grazed his temples, 
and carried off part of the hair. He remained in the 
army till 1778, filling the post of adjutant under 
General Sullivan at Rhode Island. He was a man of 
much firmness of character, of unblemished integrity, 
and of such frank and open manners as made him 
popular with his townsmen. He lived till 1827; long 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 5 

enough to receive the best reward of a parent, in 
witnessing the complete success of his children. 

His widow survived him eighteen years ; and many 
may recall her venerable form, as seen by them during 
her occasional visits to her sons in Boston. As a 
mother, she had probably greater influence than her 
husband in forming their characters. She had strict 
notions of obedience, with deeply seated religious prin- 
ciples, which she succeeded in communicating to her 
children. "Her form," to quote the language of a 
descendant, "bending over the bed of her children in 
silent prayer, when she was about leaving them for 
the night, is still among the earliest of their recol- 
lections." 

Abbott, the fifth son, was born in Groton, on the 
16th of December, 1792. His education, begun at 
the district school, was completed at the Groton Aca- 
demy, of which his father had been a trustee for 
more than thirty years; and which now, in grateful 
commemoration of the endowments it has received 



6 MEMOIR OF 

from the members of that family, bears the name of 
the Lawrence Academy. 

We have few accounts of Mr. Lawrence's earlier 
days. In a passing notice of them in a letter of his 
brother Amos, written many years after, the writer 
says, "I well remember him as the guiding-spirit of 
the boys of our neighborhood in breaking through the 
deep snow-drifts which often blocked up the roads in 
winter." The fearlessness and buoyant disposition 
thus noticed in the boy were the characteristics of 
the man in later life. 

In 1808, it was resolved to send him to Boston, 
and place him in the store of his elder brother, Mr. 
Amos Lawrence, who had been for some years esta- 
blished there in business as an importer of English 
goods. There could have been no better Mentor to 
watch over the warm-hearted and inexperienced youth, 
thus drawn from his village obscurity to be thrown 
upon the trials and temptations of the world. It is 
unnecessary to speak of the character of this brother, 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 7 

now so widely known from a biography which may 
claim to be one of the most graceful tributes ever 
paid by filial piety to the memory of a parent. 

Abbott was cordially welcomed by his brother, who 
from that hour watched over his steps in earlier days 
with a father's solicitude, and who followed his career 
in later life with feelings of pride and generous sym- 
pathy. "My brother came to me as my apprentice," 
says Mr. Amos Lawrence, in his Diary, " bringing his 
bundle under his arm, with less than three dollars 
in his pocket (and this was his fortune). A first-rate 
business lad he was ; but, like other bright lads, 
needed the careful eye of a senior to guard him from 
the pitfalls he was exposed to." The following year, 
their brother William came to Boston also, to seek his 
fortune in the capital of New England. Their father, 
on this occasion, impressed on his three sons the im- 
portance of unity, quoting the pertinent language of 
Scripture, "A threefold cord is not quickly broken;" 
a precept which they religiously observed, living al- 



8 MEMOIR OF 

ways together in that beautiful harmony which proved 
one great source of their prosperity. 

After somewhat more than five years had elapsed, 
Mr. Amos Lawrence was so well satisfied with the 
sobriety and diligence of Abbott, and with his capa- 
city for business, that he proposed to take him into 
partnership. He furnished the whole capital, amount- 
ing to fifty thousand dollars, — the fruits of his judi- 
cious management since his establishment in Boston. 
The times were by no means encouraging ; for we were 
then in the midst of our war with England. But 
every thing seemed to prosper under the prudent 
direction of Mr. Lawrence. Scarcely, however, had 
the articles of copartnership been signed, than the 
Bramble news created a panic that fearfully affected 
the prices of goods. The stock of the firm depreciated 
to such an extent, that Abbott looked on himself 
as already a bankrupt. His brother, touched with his 
distress, offered at once to cancel the copartnership 
indentures, and to pay him, moreover, five thousand 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 9 

dollars at the end of the year. But Abbott had a 
spirit equal to his own, and told his brother that he 
had taken part with him for better or worse, and that, 
come what might, he would not swerve from the con- 
tract. The generosity and manly spirit shown by the 
two brothers on this occasion gave augury of the com- 
plete success which crowned their operations in after- 
life. But success was still deferred, as things wore a 
gloomy aspect during the war. 

Most of the younger men of the city at this time 
were enrolled in the militia, which was constantly on 
duty, and liable at any moment to be called into active 
service. Mr. Abbott Lawrence had joined the inde- 
pendent company of the New-England Guards ; a 
corps remarked for its excellent appointments, and 
commanded by men more than one of whom after- 
wards rose to eminence, — not, however, in the military 
profession, but in the law. He was one of the few of 
the company he had joined who remained long enough 
on duty to entitle them to the bounty of land in the 



10 MEMOIR OF 

West offered by the general government. The soldier's 
life had something in it captivating to the imagination 
of an ardent, high-spirited youth ; and the profession of 
arms, in the present condition of the country, offered 
a more splendid career for enterprise than was to be 
found in commercial pursuits. With his brother's con- 
sent, he proposed to enter the service, and applied to 
the War Department at Washington to obtain a com- 
mission. Happily, before receiving an answer, the news 
of peace arrived, and all thoughts of a military life 
were abandoned. Mr. Lawrence used to regard this 
almost in the light of a providential interposition in 
his behalf. It was, indeed, the crisis of his fate. The 
long peace which followed condemned the soldier to an 
inactivity that left him no laurels to win ; except, in- 
deed, such as might be gathered from a skirmish with 
the savages, or from the patient endurance of priva- 
tions on some distant frontier post. Mr. Lawrence was 
reserved for a happier destiny. 

On the return of peace, the two brothers saw at 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 11 

once the new field that was opened for foreign impor- 
tations ; and the younger partner, commissioned to pur- 
chase goods at Manchester, embarked in the "Milo," 
— the first vessel that, after the proclamation of the 
peace, left Boston for England. The passage was a short 
one, but long enough for Mr. Lawrence to ingratiate 
himself not only with the officers, but with the crew, 
whose good-will he secured, as one of their number 
lately informed the writer of this notice, by his liberal 
acts no less than by the kindness of his manners. 
With characteristic ardor, he was the first to leap on 
shore ; being thus, perhaps, the first American who 
touched his fatherland after the war was ended. He 
met with a cordial welcome from people who were glad 
to see their commercial relations restored with the 
United States. Hastening to Manchester, Mr. Law- 
rence speedily made his purchases, and returned to 
Liverpool the evening only before the departure of the 
" Milo " on her homeward voyage. He at once engaged a 
lighter to take him and his merchandise to the vessel. 



12 MEMOIR OF 

When he came alongside, the mate plainly told him 
there was no room for his goods ; the cargo was all on 
board, and the hatches were battened down. But Mr. 
Lawrence would receive no denial. This, he said, was 
his first voyage, and the result was of the greatest 
importance to him. He pressed his suit with so much 
earnestness, yet good-nature, that the mate, whose 
good-will he had won on the passage, consented at last 
to receive the goods. Mr. Lawrence lost no time 
in profiting by this indulgence, and joined his men in 
pulling vigorously at the tackle, to hoist the bales on 
board. Having safely lodged them on the deck, he 
made at once for the shore, ashing no questions how 
they were to be stored. The "Milo" had a short pas- 
sage back. In eighty-four days from the time when she 
had left her port in the United States, the goods were 
landed in Boston, and, in less than a week, were 
disposed of at an enormous profit. His brother was 
delighted with the good judgment he had shown and 
his extraordinary despatch. "You are as famous," he 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 13 

pleasantly wrote to him, " among your acquaintances 
here, for the rapidity of your movements, as Bona- 
parte." 

This little anecdote is eminently characteristic of 
the man, showing, as it does, the sanguine temper and 
energy of will, which, combined with kindness of heart, 
gained him an influence over others, and formed the 
elements of his future success. 

He remained some time longer in England, extend- 
ing his acquaintance with men of business, but still 
living as an unknown individual in the midst of the 
scenes which he was afterwards to revisit clothed with 
an authority that placed him on a level with the 
proudest nobles of the land. 

Several times he repeated his voyage to England, 
and always with the same good results. Under 
the judicious management and enterprise of the 
house, its business became every day more widely 
extended; and the fortunes of the brothers rapidly 
increased. 



14 MEMOIR OF 

In June, 1819, an important event took place in 
Mr. Abbott Lawrence's life. This was bis marriage 
with Miss Katharine Bigelow, the eldest daughter of 
the Hon. Timothy Bigelow, an eminent lawyer, who 
filled for many years the office of Speaker of the House 
of Representatives of Massachusetts. He was a man of 
high legal attainments, and singularly fitted for his 
political station by his ready apprehension, his tena- 
cious memory, and bis familiarity with business. Mr. 
Lawrence's acquaintance with his wife had begun in 
childhood ; for she was a native of Groton, like himself; 
though, long before this period, her father had trans- 
ferred his residence to Medford, in the neighborhood of 
Boston. It was a most happy union, continuing for 
more than thirty-five years, until it was dissolved by 
death. In the partner of his choice, he found the 
qualities of a true and loving wife, ever ready to share 
with him all his joys and sorrows ; for the lot of the 
most fortunate has its sorrows, and sharp ones. These 
feelings he on his part returned, from first to last, with 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 15 

the warmth and single-hearted devotion which be- 
longed to his noble nature. 

During the last five years, an important change had 
gradually taken place in the internal relations of the 
country, owing to the system of domestic protection 
which now began to be recognized as a leading fea- 
ture in the policy of the government. The sagacious 
minds of the Lawrences were quick to perceive the 
influence this must exert on the channels of trade, 
and the important bearing it must have, in particular, 
on the people of New England, whose industry and 
ingenuity so well fitted them for proficiency in the 
mechanical arts. They leaned, too, with greater con- 
fidence than was justified by the event, on the sta- 
bility of the protective policy. The encouragement 
was especially felt in the cotton and woollen manu- 
factures, then almost exclusively confined to New 
England. "With characteristic energy, the brothers 
accordingly resolved to give up their business as im- 
porters, and employ their capital henceforth in domes- 



1G MEMOIR OF 

tic manufactures. Associating their names with those 
of the Lowells, the Jacksons, the Appletons, and other 
sagacious men of the same way of thinking with 
themselves, they devoted all their energies to foster 
this great branch of the national industry. Under 
these auspices, towns and villages grew up along the 
borders of the Merrimac and its numerous tributa- 
ries ; and the spots which had once been little better 
than barren wastes of sand, where the silence was 
broken only by the moaning of the wind through 
the melancholy pines, became speedily alive with the 
cheerful hum of labor. 

Mr. Lawrence had too large a mind to embark in 
this new enterprise with the feelings of a sordid spe- 
culator intent only on selfish gains. He took a more 
expansive view, founded on just principles of political 
economy. He saw the resources which this new field 
of domestic industry would open to the country ; the 
new markets it would afford to the products of the 
farmer ; the independence it would give the nation of 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 17 

foreign countries, on which it had hitherto relied for 
those fabrics which were the necessaries of life ; the 
employment it would give to thousands of operatives 
in the North, who would find here a field for talents 
hitherto unknown to themselves ; and the benefits it 
would confer on the planters of the South, in raising, 
by means of competition, the prices of the raw ma- 
terial they had to sell. These views he exhibited in 
his private correspondence and his public addresses. 
He unfolded them more at large in a well-known 
series of printed letters addressed to the Hon. Wil- 
liam C. Rives, of Virginia, which appeared in 1846. 
In these he discusses the subject of a tariff on the 
broadest grounds, enforcing his arguments, according 
to his wont, by an array of statistical facts, some of 
them exceedingly striking. Instead of limiting their 
application to his own part of the country, he par- 
ticularly directs it to Virginia, the impoverished 
condition of whose soil seemed to call for some ex- 
traordinary action to restore the ancient prosperity of 



18 MEMOIR OF 

the State. Above all, he insists on the necessity 
of the education of the poorer classes, as the only 
true basis, whether in a moral or physical point of 
view, of the public prosperity. On this' last theme he 
was always eloquent, urging it in his public addresses, 
abroad as well as at home, and with an effect which, 
as we shall see hereafter, was acknowledged, by those 
who witnessed it, to have been attended with the 
happiest results. 

In 1827 was held the Harrisburg Convention, — 
a meeting, it is hardly necessary to say, of delegates 
from different parts of the Union, for the purpose of 
taking into consideration the best measures for pro- 
tecting the manufacturing interests of the country. 
Mr. Lawrence, whose attention to the subject and the 
soundness of whose views upon it were well known, 
was one of the seven delegates sent by Massachusetts. 
The large amount of practical information which he 
brought with him proved of infinite service in the 
deliberations that followed ; and there was probably 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 19 

no one of the body who was more instrumental in 
procuring its sanction to the memorial which was 
laid before Congress, and which had so great an in- 
fluence in determining the action of the government 
in respect to the tariff of 1828. 

Notwithstanding the interest he took in public 
affairs, and the capacity which he showed for the 
management of them, Mr. Lawrence had evinced no 
desire to enter on the political arena, or to hold office 
of any kind. In 1831, he was elected to the Common 
Council of Boston, but, at the end of his term, declined 
a re-election. Nor did he from that time ever accept 
any place, either under the city government or that of 
the State. In 1834, however, he consented to stand 
as a candidate for a seat in the House of Kepresenta- 
tives at Washington. 

On taking his place in that body, he was at once 
put on the Committee of Ways and Means ; showing 
that his reputation for financial talent had already 
preceded him. During the two years that he sat on 



20 MEMOIR OF 

the floor of that house, he rarely attempted any thing 
like a set and elaborate speech. When he did speak, 
it was on topics with which he was familiar ; and his 
wise and practical views, which he enforced by ar- 
guments not local or sectional in their nature, but 
embracing the interests of the whole country, com- 
manded the deepest attention of his audience. His 
frank and cordial address, flowing less from conven- 
tional courtesy than from the natural kindness of his 
heart, conciliated his hearers ; and that " inestimable 
temper" which Gibbon commends so highly in the 
British minister, Lord North, disarmed the severity of 
his opponents, and served, like oil upon the waters, to 
calm the angry passions of debate. The same qualities 
gave Mr. Lawrence, out of the walls of Congress, an 
influence which proved of the highest service to the 
cause in which he was embarked. When he returned 
home, at the expiration of his term, there was probably 
no member of the body with which he had acted who 
possessed a larger measure of their confidence, or 
who was so universally popular. 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 21 

His constituents testified their sense of his services 
by inviting him, on his return, to a public dinner. 
This he declined in a letter, in which he touches, 
briefly but comprehensively, on the great questions 
that agitated the public mind at that day, showing 
himself throughout a stanch but liberal-minded "Whig. 
Notwithstanding the importunities of his friends, he 
declined a re-election to Congress; nor could he be 
induced to alter his purpose by the remarkable assur- 
ance given to him by the members of the opposite 
party, that, if he would consent to stand, no candidate 
should be brought out against him. 

Four years later, however, he consented to accept a 
second nomination, and again took his seat in the 
House of Eepresentatives at Washington. It was a 
disastrous session to him ; for, shortly after his arrival, 
he was attacked by typhus fever, of so malignant a 
type, that, for some time, small hopes were entertained 
of his recovery. But he had good advice ; and his fine 
constitution, and the care of his devoted wife, enabled 



22 MEMOIR OF 

him, by the blessing of Providence, to get the better of 
his disorder. It left behind, however, the seeds of an- 
other malady, in an enlargement of the liver, which 
caused him much suffering in after-life, and finally 
brought him to the grave. 

Finding a southern climate unfavorable to his health, 
he resigned his seat in Congress, and returned to Bos- 
ton, where he at once resumed his usual avocations. 
He was not long permitted to indulge in a state of 
political inaction. In 1842, the convention was held 
for the settlement of the North-eastern boundary, — 
that vexed question, which, after baffling all attempts 
at an adjustment, including those by means of royal 
arbitration, had at length assumed a form which me- 
naced an open rupture between the United States and 
England. Mr. Lawrence was one of the commissioners 
who, at the wise suggestion of Mr. Webster, were sent 
by the States of Maine and Massachusetts, to Washing- 
ton, with full powers to arrange the matter definitively 
with Lord Ashburton, who had come out invested wit h 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 23 

similar powers on behalf of his own country. No man 
in our community could have been better fitted for the 
place than Mr. Lawrence ; for he had a good knowledge 
of the subject, was well acquainted with the characters 
of the parties who were to discuss it, and possessed, in 
a remarkable degree, the qualities for success as a ne- 
gotiator. "Mr. Lawrence," said a distinguished foreign 
minister, who had personal knowledge of his abilities 
in this way, " had so much frankness and cordiality in 
his address, and impressed one so entirely with his 
own uprightness, that he could do much in the way of 
negotiation that others could not." There was an am- 
ple field for the exercise of these powers on the present 
occasion, when prejudices of long standing were to be 
encountered, when pretensions of the most opposite 
kind were to be reconciled, when the pertinacity with 
which these pretensions had been maintained had 
infused something like a spirit of acrimony into the 
breasts of the disputants. Yet no acrimony could 
stand long against the genial temper of Mr. Lawrence, 



24 MEMOIR OF 

or against that spirit of candor and reasonable conces- 
sion winch called forth a reciprocity of sentiment in 
those he had to deal with. The influence which he 
thus exerted over his colleagues contributed in no 
slight degree to a concert of action between them. 
Indeed, without derogating from the merits of the 
other delegates, it is not too much to say, that, but 
for the influence exerted by Mr. Lawrence on this 
occasion, the treaty, if it had been arranged at all, 
would never have been brought into the shape which 
it now wears. 

In the summer of the following year, Mr. Lawrence, 
whose health still felt the effects of his illness at 
Washington, proposed to recruit it by a voyage to 
England. He embarked with his family on board the 
"Columbia," — the ill-fated steamer which was wrecked 
on Black Ledge, near Seal Island, in Nova Scotia. 
All on board were fortunate enough to escape to land. 
Five days they remained on that dreary spot, ex- 
posed to wet, hunger, and miseries of every description. 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 25 

None of that forlorn company will ever forget the 
disinterested kindness shown by Mr. Lawrence, and 
his courageous and cheerful spirit, which infused life 
into the most desponding. They were at length trans- 
ported to Halifax, whence he proceeded on his voyage. 
In England, he met with a hearty welcome from some 
who had shared his hospitality in the United States, 
and many more who knew him only by reputation, 
but who became his fast friends in after-life. 

On his return home, he resumed his business, which 
pressed on him the more heavily as it became more 
widely extended. During his leisure, he was not so 
much engrossed by politics as not to give attention 
to a subject which he always had much at heart, — the 
cause of education. Among his many charities, which 
seemed to be as necessary to satisfy the wants of his 
own nature as those of the subjects of them, we find 
him constantly giving away money to assist in educa- 
ting poor young men of merit. He gave two thousand 
dollars for prizes to the pupils of the Boston Latin and 



26 MEMOIR OF 

High Schools. He now contemplated a donation, on a 
much larger scale, to Harvard University. He was 
satisfied, that, however liberal the endowments of that 
institution for objects of literary culture, no adequate 
provision had been made for instruction in science, 
more particularly in its application to the useful arts, 
— a deficiency which naturally came more readily 
within the reach of his own observation. In a re- 
markable letter addressed by him to Mr. Eliot, the 
treasurer of the college, in June, 1847, he explains, 
with great beauty and propriety of language, his views 
on the subject, and, with no less precision, points out 
the best mode of carrying them into effect. He con- 
cludes by offering the sum of fifty thousand dollars for 
the endowment of such a scientific school as he had 
proposed. This sum he afterwards doubled by a pro- 
vision to that effect in his will ; thus making the whole 
donation a hundred thousand dollars. Large as was 
this sum, its value was greatly enhanced by the wise 
arrangements made for its application. His sugges- 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 27 

tions met with the approval of the corporation. He 
had the satisfaction of seeing a building erected and 
an institution organized on the principles he had re- 
commended. Fortunately, the services were obtained, 
at the outset, of an illustrious scholar, who, by the 
consent of Europe, stood at the head of his department 
of science, and whose salary of fifteen hundred dollars 
per annum was wholly defrayed by Mr. Lawrence, in 
addition to his other donations, so long as he lived. A 
letter addressed to him by a distinguished professor of 
the school gave him the sweet assurance, in his last 
illness, of the extraordinary proficiency of the pupils, 
— in other words, of the complete success of his bene- 
volent enterprise ; and he might well be cheered by the 
reflection that the Lawrence Scientific School would 
perpetuate his name to future generations, who would 
cherish with gratitude the memory of their bene- 
factor. 

Mr. Lawrence was a member of the convention 
which nominated Mr. Clay for the Presidency. The 



28 MEMOIR OF 

interest he felt in public affairs led him to take an 
active part in promoting the success of the Whig can- 
didate, as he had before shown equal zeal in the 
canvass for Gen. Harrison, though — as the country 
has good reason to remember — with very different 
results. In 1847, Gen. Taylor was nominated as the 
Whig candidate for President, and Mr. Fillmore for 
Vice-President. The history of the convention which 
made these nominations is too familiar to be recapitu- 
lated here. It is enough to say that Mr. Lawrence had 
received assurances, down to the very eve of the elec- 
tion, which gave him every reason to suppose that he 
was to be named for the latter office. Whatever may 
have been his disappointment, he did not betray it 
by a word. " Well, I am perfectly satisfied," was the 
answer he made to the friend who was appointed to 
inform him of the result; and, instead of looking for 
pretexts, as many, not to say most, men would have 
done, for withdrawing from the canvass, or at least for 
looking coldly upon it, he was among the first to join 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 29 

in a call for a meeting of the Whigs in Faneuil Hall, 
and to address them, in the warmest manner, in sup- 
port of the regular ticket. In the same magnanimous 
and patriotic spirit, he visited the principal towns in 
the State, delivering addresses and using all his efforts 
to secure the triumph of the good cause. 

On the election of Gen. Taylor to the chief ma- 
gistracy of the country, the confidence he reposed in 
Mr. Lawrence, and the prominent position occupied by 
the latter in the party, recommended him at once to a 
seat in the cabinet. The place of Secretary of the 
Navy was accordingly offered to him, and afterwards 
that of Secretary of the Interior. Both offices were 
declined by him ; and when, soon after, he was nomi- 
nated by the President to take the highest diplomatic 
post in the gift of the government, — the mission to 
England, — he declined that also. The large and im- 
portant interests of which he had the charge made him 
see only the difficulties of such a step. The place, 
moreover, had been filled by distinguished statesmen, 



30 MEMOIR OF 

two of the most recent of whom stood pre-eminent in 
the literature of the country ; and Mr. Lawrence seems 
to have exaggerated the qualifications required for the 
post, or, at any rate, to have distrusted his own. From 
these various considerations, he had made up his mind 
to decline the offer when pressed upon him a second 
time by Gen. Taylor, and announced his decision to 
his friends. But some of them, taking a very different, 
and, as it proved, a more correct, view of the affair, 
persuaded him to review, and subsequently to reverse, 
his decision. In the month of September, 1849, he 
accordingly embarked, with his wife and a part of his 
family, for England. 

Mr. Lawrence's mission to the court of St. James 
was the most brilliant part of his political career, and 
fully justified the sagacity of those who advised him to 
undertake it. Taking all circumstances into considera- 
tion, few men could have been so well fitted for the 
place. If he had not the profound scholarship of his 
immediate predecessors, he had, what was of great 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 31 

moment, a large practical acquaintance with affairs ; a 
thorough knowledge of the resources of his own country, 
and of the country to which he was accredited; a 
talent quite remarkable, as we have seen, for negotia- 
tion ; a genial temper, well suited to thaw out the 
chilling reserve of manner too apt to gather round 
the really warm heart of the Englishman ; a generous 
spirit of hospitality, with a fortune to support it, en- 
abling him to collect round him persons of most emi- 
nence in the society of the capital, and to bring them 
in contact with similar classes of his own countrymen ; 
thus happily affording opportunity for allaying ancient 
prejudices, and fostering mutual sentiments of respect 
and good-will. 

A similar influence was exerted by the public ad- 
dresses which, from time to time, he was called on to 
make in different parts of the kingdom, at meetings 
held to promote the great interests of agriculture, of 
manufactures, or of educational reform. Coming from 
a land where the people had made such progress in the 



32 MEMOIR OF 

various departments of labor and mechanical skill, and 
from a part of the country where popular education 
had made most progress, he was naturally listened to 
with much attention. The paramount importance of 
education for the masses was the theme he constantly 
pressed home upon his hearers. Thus, at Manchester, 
we find him drawing a comparison between the labor- 
ing classes in England and the United States in respect 
to education, and plainly telling his audience, that, " if 
England hoped to keep her place in the van of civili- 
zation, it must be by educating the humblest of her 
classes up to the highest point of other nations." 
"The able as well as delicate manner," says an emi- 
nent British journal, "in which Mr. Lawrence handled 
this subject, made a deep impression on his auditory ; 
and it had probably no inconsiderable influence in 
stimulating that highly creditable educational move- 
ment of which Manchester has since been the scene, 
and in which it has stood out in strong contrast to the 
other great towns of the empire." 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 33 

We find hini speaking to the same purpose, in a 
striking passage often quoted from the speech made by 
him at Mr. Peabody's dinner, at the close of the Great 
Exhibition in London. A broader field for these popu- 
lar addresses was offered by a visit which he made to 
Ireland in the autumn of 1852. The welcome he re- 
ceived from the generous-hearted people was altogether 
extraordinary. His reputation had prepared the way 
for it ; and all were eager to see the representative of 
a land to which their own countrymen were flocking as 
to a place of refuge from the troubles of the Old World. 
Well might the "Times" say that "the American 
Minister found himself received with almost the honors 
of royalty; that railway directors gave him special 
trains, banquets, and addresses; and every city pre- 
pared an ovation." 

In the midst of this festal progress, Mr. Lawrence 
was closely observing the condition of the country and 
its inhabitants, and drawing materials for an elaborate 
report of it to the Department of State. The despatch 



3<± MEMOIR OF 

is of much length, embodying his views on the great 
questions of interest touching the state of that un- 
happy country, the policy of the English government 
towards it, and its probable future ; the whole accom- 
panied by a mass of statistical information, which his 
position gave him obvious advantages for collecting. 
This valuable report forms one of numerous despatches 
of a similar nature which occupied what was regarded 
as the American minister's leisure time during his 
diplomatic residence. Many of the papers are of great 
length, and must have been prepared with much care. 
Some few have been printed by order of Congress. The 
rest are to be found on the files of the Department of 
State at Washington. One has only to specify the 
titles of some of these to show the variety of the topics 
to which they relate. Thus, we find one containing 
curious estimates on the comparative cost of building 
and manning merchant ships in England and the 
United States ; another on the guard-ships for the sup- 
pression of the slave-trade ; another on the commerce 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 35 

carried on with Africa ; two or three on the postal 
relations of the country, with reference to a reduction 
of the rate of ocean-postage ; another, the result of 
much consideration, on the currency of both England 
and our own country. Besides these communications 
on particular topics, we find others, of a more general 
nature, containing a survey of the actual condition of 
England, supported by abundant statistical detail ; 
with ample discussion on its course of trade, on the 
character of parties, and the policy of the government. 
The opportunities of personal observation enjoyed by 
Mr. Lawrence abroad served, it may be remarked, to 
strengthen the opinions he had expressed at home of 
the necessity of a protective policy by our own govern- 
ment, if we would contend successfully against the 
cheaper labor of Europe. In this survey of the national 
character and resources, the despatches of Mr. Law- 
rence remind one of the reports — relazioni, as they are 
ca ll e( j — which were made, by order of their govern- 
ment, by the Venetian ambassadors, and which, after 



36 MEMOIR OF 

being read, on their return, before the Senate, were 
deposited in the public archives, where they furnish 
some of the most authentic materials for the historian. 
Among the despatches are two particularly worthy 
of consideration, as relating to negotiations that opened 
the way to important treaties. The first of these re- 
lates to the fisheries. No sooner had Mr. Lawrence 
become acquainted with the course pursued by the 
English government in sending out a fleet of armed 
vessels to assert its maritime rights on the coast of 
Nova Scotia, than, without waiting for instructions, he 
at once opened the matter to Lord Malmesbury, then 
Minister for Foreign Affairs, and urged the mischievous 
consequences likely to result from an action so precipi- 
tate and so menacing in its nature. His remonstrances 
were of sufficient weight to influence the instructions 
afterwards issued by the government; and Mr. Law- 
rence's negotiations, which received the approval of 
the President, placed affairs on the quiet basis on 
which they continued till a treaty was definitively 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 37 

settled. When we reflect on the irritation that would 
have been produced in this country if the ill-considered 
measure of the English government had been fully 
carried out, we cannot doubt that the timely and 
temperate remonstrance of the American minister did 
much to save his country from a rupture with Great 
Britain. 

The other affair concerned Central America, — that 
uneasy question, which, after having been formally 
disposed of by treaty, has again risen, like a troubled 
spirit, to disturb the quiet of the world. The American 
envoy, in obedience to instructions from Washington, 
brought the subject before Lord Palmerston as early as 
November, 1849. He obtained from that minister an 
assurance that Great Britain had no design to occupy 
or colonize any part of Central America, and that she 
would willingly enter into a guarantee with the United 
States for the neutrality of the proposed canal across 
the Isthmus. But Mr. Lawrence was quick to per- 
ceive that these assurances would fail to answer the 



38 MEMOIR OF 

purpose, unless Great Britain would consent to aban- 
don her shadowy protectorate over the Mosquito In- 
dians. He accordingly made this the subject of a 
particular representation in more than one interview 
with the English minister ; and he further urged the 
abandonment of the protectorate on the strongest 
grounds of policy, in a long and able communication 
to Lord Palmerston, dated December 14, 1849. To this 
letter he received no reply ; and early in the follow- 
ing year, it being thought there were greater facilities 
for conducting the negotiation in this country than in 
England, it was removed, for a final adjustment of the 
affair, to Washington. 

Meanwhile Mr. Lawrence had been diligently pre- 
paring a communication for his own government, — 
since printed by order of the Senate, — the object of 
which was to trace to its origin the British claim to 
the exercise of a protectorate over the Mosquito terri- 
tory. In doing this, he travelled over a vast field of 
historical research, showing the first occupation of the 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 39 

territory by the Spaniards, its subsequent invasion by 
the English, and establishing, to the conviction of 
every unprejudiced mind, that Great Britain never did 
possess any legal right to the qualified dominion which 
she claimed as protector of the Indians ; and that, if she 
had possessed it, this would signify nothing, since, 
by an express treaty with Spain, she had formally 
renounced such right. By a singular coincidence, this 
remarkable state-paper is dated on the 19th of April, 
1850, being precisely the same date with that of the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty. 

This latter instrument, confining itself to the simple 
object of a guarantee for a canal across the Isthmus, 
makes no provision for the Mosquito question, though 
by an incidental allusion it appears to recognize the 
existence of a protectorate. Indeed, it seems to have 
done nothing more than carry out the details of the 
arrangement to which Lord Palmerston professed his 
readiness to accede in his first communication to Mr. 
Lawrence. But, as the latter wisely foresaw, so impor- 



40 MEMOIR OF 

tant an element in the discussion as the Mosquito 
protectorate could not be winked out of sight ; and, as 
it now appears, the absence of so material a link in 
the chain of negotiations has made the other provisions 
of the treaty of little worth. 

The pressing nature of Mr. Lawrence's private af- 
fairs made him at length, after an absence of three 
years, desirous of returning home. Indeed, he could 
not have postponed his return so long, but for the 
faithful and able manner in which his eldest son, to 
whom he had committed the charge of his property, 
had executed that trust; thus relieving his father, as 
the latter often remarked, of all anxiety in regard to 
his own affairs, and enabling him to give undivided 
attention to those of the public. Having obtained the 
President's consent, Mr. Lawrence resigned his place 
as envoy from the United States on the first of October, 
1852, and bade adieu to those shores where he had 
landed almost a stranger, but where he now left a host 
of friends ; where the kindness of his heart, the charm 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 41 

of his manners, and his elegant hospitality, had made 
his mission as acceptable to the English as the able 
and conscientious manner in which it was conducted 
rendered it honorable to himself and his country. 

The citizens of Boston had made preparations for giv- 
ing him such a brilliant reception on landing as might 
show their sense of his services. Unhappily, the time 
of his return was also that of the death of Mr. Webster. 
Mr. Lawrence proceeded to Marshfield the day after his 
arrival ; and his first meeting with many of his friends 
and townsmen was at the celebration of the funeral 
obsequies of the great statesman. When a decent 
time had elapsed, his friends resumed their purpose 
of a complimentary dinner. But Mr. Lawrence, with 
much delicacy, declined their invitation, saying that 
" he should seem wanting in respect for the dead, as 
well as consideration for the living, were he to accept 
a festive entertainment at such a season of mourning." 
He now resumed his former way of life, and was to 
be found at the regular hours at his accustomed place 



42 MEMOIR OF 

of business. The complexion of the times was most 
unfavorable to both the cotton and woollen manufac- 
tures. Great advances were required to be made for 
the completion of works in which Mr. Lawrence was 
largely interested. It was difficult to obtain such ad- 
vances in the depressed state of the stocks. With his 
usual spirit, Mr. Lawrence came forward to the rescue, 
and not only bore his own share of the subscription, 
but took stock to the amount of three hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars more ; though, in doing so, he 
sacrificed half that amount, the stock having fallen 
fifty per cent in the market. 

But Mr. Lawrence, though he gave a general super- 
vision to his affairs, left the conduct of them to his 
younger partners, whose experience well qualified them 
for the task. He did not possess, indeed, the same 
strength of constitution and physical energy that he 
once had. Perhaps for that reason, though he still 
maintained a warm interest in public affairs, with the 
exception of his efforts in the canvass for General 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 43 

Scott as President, he took no active part in politics. 
He still showed the same zeal as ever in the cause of 
education, and watched with the deepest interest over 
the rising fortunes of the Scientific School which he 
had founded at Cambridge. His labors in behalf of 
learning were fully appreciated by his countrymen ; 
one proof of which is afforded by the literary honors 
bestowed on him by the principal academies and col- 
leges throughout the State. 

Thus loved and respected by the community in 
which he lived, with a fortune that enabled him to 
gratify his munificent disposition, and a heart fitted by 
nature for the pleasures of friendship, and, above all, 
for the sweet intercourse of home, Mr. Lawrence might 
reasonably promise himself that serene enjoyment for 
the evening of his days which should wait upon the 
close of a well-spent life. Alas! no such happiness 
was in store for him. 

In September, 1854, he was visited by a return of 
the malady the seeds of which had lingered in his 



44 MEMOIR OF 

constitution ever since his illness at Washington. A 
second attack, a few weeks later, while passing some 
clays on his family estate amidst the beautiful scenery 
of Groton, left him in a precarious state of health, 
from which he did not entirely rally till the winter was 
far advanced. Even then, although he recovered the 
natural buoyancy of his spirits and again mingled 
in society, the indications of suffering in his counte- 
nance, and the loss of his accustomed vigor, were just 
causes of apprehension to his friends. His physician 
advised change of climate, and recommended to him 
a voyage to England, associated as it was in his mind 
with so many pleasant recollections. Early in June, 
1855, he accordingly secured a passage for himself and 
Mrs. Lawrence in one of the British steamers; but, 
two days after, his malady returned, accompanied with 
such intense pain that he took to his bed, — from which 
he was never more to rise. 

It would be painful to follow him through the long 
and wearisome summer, during which he was sensibly 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 45 

losing ground day after clay, yet with occasional inter- 
vals of ease that seemed to give promise that the 
disease was arrested. No one will forget the extraor- 
dinary interest shown on that occasion by all classes, 
and the eagerness with which they endeavored to draw 
from the physicians some encouragement for their 
hopes. A more remarkable proof of the hold he had 
upon the community was the daily announcement of 
the state of his health in the public journals, — a 
tribute the more touching that he held no official 
position to call it forth. It was the homage of the 
heart. 

During the long period of his confinement, his 
sufferings served only to show the sweetness of his 
disposition. The circumstances which filled those 
around him with wretchedness and with apprehen- 
sions they could ill disguise had no power to disturb 
his serenity. He loved life. No man had greater 
reason to love it; for he had all that makes life 
valuable. But, as his hold loosened upon it, no mur- 



46 MEMOIR OF 

mur, no sigh of regret, escaped his lips; while he 
bowed in perfect submission to the will of that Al- 
mighty Father who had ever dealt with him so kindly. 
As his strength of body diminished, that of his affec- 
tions seemed to increase. He appeared to be con- 
stantly occupied with thoughts of others rather than of 
himself; and many a touching instance did he give 
of this thoughtfulness, and of his tender recollection 
of those who were dear to him. The desire of doing 
good, on the broadest scale, clung to him to the last, 
Not two weeks before his death, he was occupied with 
arranging the plan of the model-houses for the poor, 
for which he made so noble a provision in his will. 
His last hours were cheered by the assurance, as we 
have elsewhere noticed, that his wise and generous 
provisions for promoting a more scientific culture at 
Cambridge were crowned with entire success. He was 
dying with every thing around him to soften the bit- 
terness of death ; above all, with the sweet con- 
sciousness that he had not lived in vain. On the 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 47 

18th of August, 1855, a few months before he had 
completed his sixty-third year, he expired, and that 
so gently, that those around could not be sure of the 
precise moment when his spirit took its flight. 

The tidings of Mr. Lawrence's death, though not 
unexpected, fell like some startling calamity on the 
ears of the community. A meeting of the citizens 
was at once called to express their sense of this great 
public bereavement. It assembled in Faneuil Hall, — 
that hall where the manly tones of his own voice had 
been so often raised in maintenance of the right, but 
which now echoed only to the sounds of lamentation, 
as more than one gifted orator poured forth an eloquent 
and touching tribute to the virtues of the deceased. 

The sympathies of the community were called forth 
still more strongly on the day of the funeral, when the 
sad countenances and moistened eyes of the vast mul- 
titude that attended the services showed how truly 
they felt the death of Mr. Lawrence, not merely as a 
great public calamity, but as something personal to 



48 MEMOIR OF 

themselves. Every honor that could be paid to his 
memory was eagerly rendered by the authorities of 
the city on this occasion. The day was celebrated as 
a day of public mourning. The bells tolled in the 
principal churches. The flags of the shipping were 
at half-mast. Minute-guns were fired. The places of 
business were closed in many parts of the town, and 
all along the road which conducted to the cemetery of 
Mount Auburn. As the spectator gazed on the long 
company of mourners taking their way through files 
of the soldiery, who lined the streets as far as the 
bridge which unites Boston to Cambridge, he might 
well have called to mind the time when the object of 
all this homage first came to town, over this same 
avenue, a poor country-lad, with only a few dollars in 
his pocket, and but one friend in that strange capital 
to welcome him. That friend was his brother, Amos 
Lawrence, who, only three years since, had been borne 
to Mount Auburn, amidst the tears and regrets of the 
whole community. Still another brother — William, 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 49 

of whom mention has been made in an early part of 
this memoir — had preceded them both on the same 
dark journey. Like them, he had come to Boston to 
seek his fortune, which, when gained, he employed, 
like them, in acts of beneficence and mercy. The 
"threefold cord" to which their father had so wisely 
alluded was indeed broken ; but it was by the hand 
of Death. And in that beautiful cemetery, where are 
gathered the ashes of so many of the good and the 
great, the three brothers, who loved one another 
through life so well, now sleep side by side, and rest 
in peace from their labors. 

A notice of Mr. Lawrence would not be complete 
without some mention of the legacies left by him 
for charitable purposes, so much in harmony with 
the general course of his life. Besides doubling the 
amount given in his lifetime to the Scientific School, 
he bequeathed the sum of fifty thousand dollars for 
the erection of model lodging-houses for the poor, pro- 
viding with great minuteness and discretion such 



50 MEMOIR OF 

regulations as would accomplish the object he had in 
view. In addition to these munificent bequests, he 
left ten thousand dollars to the Public Library of the 
city of Boston, and smaller legacies to different insti- 
tutions ; making the whole amount of one hundred and 
fifty thousand dollars devised for public objects. These 
were the last acts of a life of benevolence. 

Such are the outlines of the history of a Boston 
merchant, — of one who, by the energy of his character 
and the winning frankness of his manners, acquired a 
remarkable ascendency over all with whom he came in 
contact ; who supplied the deficiencies of early educa- 
tion by an assiduous diligence, that made him eminent 
in after-life both as a public speaker and a political 
writer ; whose conduct was controlled by settled reli- 
gious principles, that made him proof alike against the 
intrigues of party and the blandishments of a court ; 
who regarded every subject with those large and en- 
lightened views which gave dignity to his profession, 
and raised him to high consideration as a diploma- 



ABBOTT LAWRENCE. 51 

tist and a statesman ; who, blessed by nature with a 
sunny temper and a truly loving heart, was the delight 
of his friends, and an object of little less than idolatry 
to his own family ; and who, holding the large property 
he had acquired by his own efforts as a trust for the 
good of his fellow-men, dispensed it in those noble 
charities which have gained him a high place among 
the benefactors of mankind. 



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